Monday, March 28, 2016

A Public School Education

By Matthew ShoenIt seems like we have been battling over Common Core and its implications to the education of our children
for a long time. In fact, it feels like from the time of No Child Left Behind
we have been fighting about what it means to educate children in this country
and what skills we need to impart. Currently, we are promoting STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Math) as a program of study to keep our children
competitive in the global market. As a STEMless individual whose greatest
science achievement will always be getting an 87 on the Chemistry Regents and
who bases his belief in God on the GRE Math score of 151 he received via lucky
guesses I have always been a bit leery of the emphasis we place on STEM
subjects. At Preservation Studios we have worked with a number of abandoned schools
throughout New York State and I have seen evidence to support my leeriness,
evidence that shows that at the start of the twentieth century educators had a
few very correct ideas about school curriculum. These ideas are ones that we seem
to have strayed from over the last century.

Prior to about 1890, education was for
the children of the rich and middle class and college was only for the wealth
and exceptionally gifted. Children in schools throughout America were taught
the basics of Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. If they went to private schools
there was also a good chance they would learn Greek or Latin, studying Virgil,
Socrates, or Ovid. The rest of America’s children worked, helping their
families farm, or earn money working in factories. This had been the way of public
education for centuries and it was about to change.

In 1852 compulsory education laws were
passed, however these were never enforced as children needed to work and
contribute to the survival of their families. Because of this, the laws were
ignored and school continued to be a privilege of the upper classes. As the
century drew to a close however views about education began to change, as did
the demographics of America. Increasing waves of immigrants from the countries
of Southern Europe were filling the country with children who were not only
illiterate, but didn’t even speak English. The needs of these immigrants,
coupled with changing views about what childhood should be devoted to prompted
a massive expansion of the American school system. It was this period between
1890-1930 that saw the construction of hundreds of new school buildings, all of
which were built with new design standards and curriculum expectations that
were radically different from what had come before.

Educators during these years of
expansion knew that the old methodology and pedagogy that had served them for
hundreds of years was no longer appropriate. Students came to school without
the ability to speak or read English, more importantly some students came to
school unwashed because their families didn’t have access to bathroom
facilities. Even more came hungry, damaging their concentration and
performance. Schools could no longer function as one room schoolhouses, they
needed to be huge centralized structures with facilities to take care of the
physical needs of immigrant and impoverished children. The buildings also
needed to provide intensive classes for immigrant children, getting them caught
up and capable of understanding the English language. Greek and Latin were
abandoned. Teachers and school administrators realized that their purpose was
not to groom the next generation of American elite, or prepare children to
attend college, instead the purpose of education was to create informed
democratic citizens. The school as an idea moved away from the environs of socialization
for the upper classes and into the realm of a civic structure erected for the
good of its community.

With college no longer the end goal of
primary school, administrators needed to diversify the curriculum and this is
where I believe they were correct and our modern emphasis on STEM is a bit
misplaced. These administrators, realized they needed to provide as many educational
options as they could in order to best prepare their students for life. Further,
they understood that it was necessary to entice students to come to school and
offer them programs that suited their interests and talents. Dedicated spaces
were made for domestic arts, electrical engineering, the sciences, and machine
maintenance. In West High School in Auburn, the entire school was built with
vocational education in mind. The school bore all the hallmarks of a B.O.C.E.S
education center before the B.O.C.E.S program had even been initiated and was
one of three high schools in Auburn, each of which focused on a different major
branch of education.[1]

West High School in Auburn

The creation of all these new classroom
spaces meant that the school needed to grow to accommodate the curriculum as
well as the economic condition of its students. In addition to the expanded
classroom spaces New York State law mandated that schools greater than thirty
rooms needed to contain gymnasiums and auditorium spaces for the students. These spaces were accessible
to the public, furthering the tie between schools and the civic role they played
in their respective communities. Many schools utilized their auditoriums for
community performances, graduation ceremonies, and voting stations during
election season. The auditorium helped integrate parents with the school,
investing them in the education of their child or children and fostering the
sort of community interaction that had previously occurred outside the school
in places like theatres, parks, and saloons. Education in all its forms was
seen as the stepping stone to a better life, a life not necessarily tied to
college education and old money.

Compare this to STEM, which does have
excellent points but seems to be piling all the darts onto one board. Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Math are going to be critical features of our
education system in the twenty-first century and implementing new technology to
educate our students is absolutely necessary to provide them with the same
opportunities their ancestors received in public schools one hundred years ago.
However, while the science taught in public schools between 1890-1930 was
doubtlessly suspect, it was however taught as a holistic part of the education
system. The educators of this era played to the strengths of their students,
molding education to their needs and interests whenever possible. That emphasis
is important, and something I feel we have lost in the present day. Successful education doesn’t come from
hammering home STEM, just like it wasn’t successful to teach Italian immigrants
Latin poetry in 1890. Successful education is providing options to students.
Inevitably a lot of them will choose STEM courses because frankly science is
fun, however some kids have STEMless skills and these should be promoted and
encouraged in our modern education system much like they were one hundred years
ago.

Photo from missioncollege.edu

[1] These three branches were a business school, a college
preparatory school, and West High School’s vocational training.

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